How to Manage The Egotistical Salesperson

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Ralph

The sales person with an ego the size of Jupiter is notorious in the sales management world.

That’s because most sales managers think of them as incredibly difficult to manage…or are they?

If you feel this way, you’re not alone. Many sales management experts would agree with you.

But in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Its unfortunate that most sales management training focuses on the problems associated with these kinds of sales reps. But with the egotistical sales rep, they are really the easiest for you to manage…you just have to know how.

Not sound like a Freudian sales management training psychoanalyst, Continue reading →

Sales Management | How To Screen A Sales Resume For Accolades

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Dan

Although the mutual fund industry repeatedly tells you that “past success is no indication of future success” when investing in mutual funds, I far prefer to put my retirement savings in 5 star funds instead of 1 star ones, don’t you?

Likewise when screening a new sales hire, the presence of recurring, frequent past accolades in a sales candidate are about the closest thing you can get to guaranteeing future sales success with any new sales hire.

When screening a sales resume for accolades, you must keep three things in mind: Continue reading →

As A Sales Manager, How Do You Know When You’ve Made A Hiring Error?

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Dan

thinking sales person These past couple of weeks we’ve talked about underperformers, sales superstars, talents, and the right words to say at the right time.

All this time I’ve been talking about the techniques and the right ways to manage your sales team. But here is the thing: when is enough enough? When do you get to throw in the towel and say, “Sales isn’t your true calling. I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go”?

You are a very busy person. While your sales people are out working towards their quota, you’re stuck in the office, behind a desk, figuring out how to work your own quota. So I’m going to tell you the truth right here.

As soon as you figure that you need to micromanage a sales person, that’s when you know you’ve made a hiring error.

A top-performing sales manager knows this very well. Average sales managers are aware of it, too. But they tend to miss the point completely. Continue reading →

Sales Management | How To Be A Flexible Sales Leader

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Dan

dancing sales manager Sales managers are hired to solve problems. They’re also hired to lead, but they end up spending an enormous time solving problems within the sales team. Say a sales person is showing consistently poor performance? Take it to the sales manager. Quarterly sales stink? Let the sales manager handle it. Hiring a new sales person? Let the sales manager take that one.

You can’t solve everything, although you may feel that you should – your ability to coach your salespeople so that you help people solve their problems instead of you solving people’s problems.

All sales managers believe in the magic behind good sales coaching. But an amateur or an average sales manager’s coaching style is rigid. It is solid and won’t budge. The sales people under him are forced to adapt to his specific coaching style. Continue reading →

Masterful Reprimands – The Best Sales Management Training

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Dan

reprimanding sales manager As effective as Masterful Praisings are in reinforcing good behavior, reprimands are as effective at curtailing bad behavior.

We call em, you guessed it…”Masterful Reprimands”.

Although they are basically concept, just on opposite ends of the spectrum, there are big differences in the approach.

For your “veteran” salespeople, this tactic is particularly effective in changing ingrained bad habits and behaviors. How many of these guys have you got? Continue reading →